Open Secrets

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Open Secrets, Alice Munro's eighth collection, features eight extraordinary stories, each as rich as a full novel, offering both compelling reading and rewarding re-reading. The collection opens with a mysterious 1917 letter to a librarian in Carstairs, Ontario, drawing readers into a realm of secrets and revelations where nothing is as it seems, including a courtship by letter that evolves into a solid marriage. The stories traverse Ontario's history, from "A Wilderness Station," recounting an 1852 tree-felling accident that highlights the pioneers' harsh lives, to contemporary settings filled with familiar family names amidst TV shows and snowmobiles. The narratives shift through time and geography, as seen in "The Albanian Virgin," where a Canadian tourist in the 1920s is captured by bandits, and her escape story comforts a bookseller seeking to leave her past behind. "The Jack Randa Hotel" follows a deserted wife pursuing her husband to Australia, leading to another captivating letter. Unexplainable events abound, such as a lawyer's wife experiencing a chilling insight into a missing teenager's fate and the haunting return of a long-dead visitor. Munro's mastery lies in her ability to unfold unexpected marriages, elopements, and sudden acts of vengeance with an effortless inevitability, a hallmark of her exceptional writing evident on every page.